Sun's Tide
by Wolfstorm7
Summary: Drabbles and purple prose. Life on the cliff by the sea goes on as ever, happily.


I was in a happy mood; I felt like writing something insanely feel-good. Enjoy! :)

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><p>~oO0Oo~oO0Oo~oO0Oo~oO0Oo~oO0Oo~<p>

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><p>Ponyo lay back and let the water curl around her toes. She closed her eyes and watched twists of light pulse on her eyelids to the rhythm of the swelling tide. Softly swaying in a wet sand hammock, the little girl felt the sun stamping yellow bright circles under her eyelids. The color melted from to orange, and then to cerulean, like the ocean at her feet.<p>

She cracked open her lids to the light and azure expanse, and inevitably, unexplainably, there was so much to see! She spun with the delight until ocean, sky, sand and grass became one great hand that pulled her heart off its hooks, pulled her to her knees in the feathery surf.

And then she was up and running, feeling the ground tug at her feet, the feet she had for so long longed to have. She flew past Sōsuke and his father, who smiled grandly, past the gate and the open windows of the house, only halting at the peak of the cliff. A long-lost song roared in her ears. Even though her body was unmoving, besides the trembling of her fingers, her heart was still dipping on its steep track, such a descent that she screamed giddily out to her mother ocean. She spread her arms, rolled her toes in the grass, delighting in the feel, and let herself fall madly in love with this life~

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><p>Kōichi parted the tall grass with his body like a ship, the boy on his back an eager captain. Sōsuke tightened his fists around his father's neck and peered out into the dark ocean, sensing a presence familiar. Or perhaps he sensed his own homage to the ocean that had delivered so much good fortune: first, Ponyo, then his father. The waves glittered many feet below, whispering secrets of the lucid deep.<p>

With each surge of the tide he felt a tiny tug, as if his chest had been strung with wires, anchored to the cresting waves.

Flowing like golden seaweed, the grass brought an unearthly quality to the hillside. Sōsuke's father laughed, load and broad and vivacious, and set his son back-first down. He gave the boy a laudatory smile, and the sky grew a degree more blue, the sun a degree brighter. Framed against the sky, larger than life, stood Kōichi, the father, the seaman. There was nothing in the world that could rival his brilliance, the thousand stars in his eyes.

Footsteps thundered near and Kōichi acknowledged the running girl with a smile. They had all come together. The sky was bright, and from under the water, music seemed to swell. It was times like these, on the golden hill, when he wanted to wrap his arms around this life; there was so much to hold, it was so beautiful~

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><p>She swept the cloth around the bowl's rim another time and her thoughts began to drift.<p>

Outside, Kōichi played on the hill with Sōsuke. The beach grass had reached waist-high, and it rocked under the ocean wind, rich golden like a lion's mane. Sōsuke perched on his father's back, his arms strung around his neck. A quick smile was exchanged here, a glance with bright eyes there, and then her husband lowered Sōsuke gently into the waiting earth cradle.

Ponyo raced by the window, the untamable creature of red hair flowing out behind her. Mixed with the hush of waves, the girl's contagious laughter reached the window. The ocean bobbed with the forbidden and the familiar.

Lisa let the light stream in, let it coat her, paste sun warmth all over her skin. And looking out the window, she saw her husband and son on the hill, and this vision consumed her, like fire. She was a woman with the heat of a burning star, on the verge of exploding out. The bowl in her hands shone with a crystal glimmer, and her blazing light pooled in the bottom, in every divot, until she felt ready to burst…

There was wetness on her cheeks and she realized she was crying. Lisa wiped her eyes with the cloth, and pressed a hand to her belly. "Oh, Granmamare. You were right." She smiled at the sea. "I'm happy." ~

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><p>Fujimoto slunk, barely surfacing – his nose and eyes peeking out from the deep, the crest of his wild red mane swirling with sea foam. On the golden-grassed cliff, his small daughter stood with her arms spread, a smile splitting her face. His gaze roamed over the house and its welcoming windows, then to the boy and the man in the grass. Was this really what his most precious daughter had sacrificed her magic for?<p>

Why, he had spent all his life trying to slice himself from the rest of the human race, like running from his shadow. How could he, a sorcerer trying to differentiate from these filthy beings, procreate a child who lusted for the common human life?

Laughter rushed from Ponyo's mouth. On the hill, the son and father smiled and held their innocence close. The woman in the window turned her face to the sun, caught in some sort of blissful net. He watched them for a long minute, and slowly, Fujimoto thought he had glimpsed a bit of what Ponyo fled the ocean for. She was in love – with the boy, the family, the cliff by the see and the world once forbidden.

The sorcerer allowed himself a small, sad smile as he sunk beneath the waves. His daughter was happy. Why couldn't he let go?

Sunlight bubbled on the surface; it spangled out like a web and he was too caught in the beauty of the world above, tide upon tide, he stared upwards, until he forgot it all and the sky faded to white~

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><p>Granmamare's heartbeat: the pulse of a song, low and ancient. She simply spread her arms across the ocean, shore to shore, and let it flow~<p> 


End file.
